Talha Mubarik

13/07/2023

Executing the right marketing strategy at the perfect moment truly reaps magnificent rewards!

17/09/2022

In successful outcomes, the people who could afford to trade off their salary to take a bet on will win the biggest. You have to own equity if you want to strike it big financially.

In Dec 2015, raised a $14 million Series A at a $48 million post-money valuation. This was at $0.20 per share, and there were ~242.2 million shares.

If you joined at that time (mind you: this was BEFORE public release), let's assume you got 0.2% of the company - this could be conservative depending on who you are.

That 0.2% is ~484.4K shares. At the time, you would have said it was worth ~$97K and compared that to your big tech salary and thought that wasn't a lot.

Some of you may not have been in a position to take a lower salary to bet on that 0.2%.

Well, 7 years later, that 0.2% is now worth $20 ($42/share). There's no salary on Earth that could have made up the difference.

OF COURSE, there are risks. You can bet that in 2015, there were many, many other companies worth $50 million at Series A that did not make it to $20 billion as Figma did.

At the time, you would have had to look across all of those companies and figure out that THIS company - a not-yet-public product with no meaningful revenue and a young CEO who dropped out of college - would be an important one.

That is hard.

But such are the dynamics of the startup world. It's all about taking big swings and who can afford to do so.

06/09/2022

A guide to design sizes for the most popular social networks.

28/08/2022

5 lessons from ’s 67% decline:

1. Competition changes your market
2. Content CAN trump product
3. Entertainment is hits-driven
4. Big tech is always a threat
5. The tyranny of spend

From 2011 to 2021, Netflix did not report a single quarter of decreasing subscribers. This year, it reported 2. In the process, it has declined from $300B in market cap to $100B. For students of product growth, it’s an amazing case to study.

1. Competition changes your market

In the first phase of the streaming wars, Netflix was dismantling the dominance of cable TV. It could pay the major content houses (like HBO & Disney) for the rights to their shows & movies. That has changed with the entry of these players.

In the new second phase of the streaming wars, each player is keeping their content exclusive. You don’t see Stranger Things on HBO Max, Obiwan on Netflix, or Game of Thrones on Disney+. This has changed the nature of the market Netflix plays in.

2. Content CAN trump product

In this new market, Netflix’s higher quality streaming product only matters on the periphery. Sure, its search, smart downloads, & home page algorithm are best in class. But the main turf for competition has shifted to content.

This is a major takeaway for product leaders. Unlimited optimization of every surface isn’t always how to move the needle.

3. Entertainment is hits-driven

There is a big difference between products that solve problems and products that entertain. For products that entertain, hits matter.

Netflix’s outdated approach of Metacritic rated 40-70 niche shows isn’t going to work anymore. Disney recently surpassed Netflix in subscribers due to its Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar blockbuster HITS.

4. Big tech is always a threat

Big tech has come in with its own hits. Arguably some of the best new shows are from big tech: Apple with Ted Lasso, and Amazon with The Boys. Big tech is also a threat in markets Netflix WANTS to enter, like gaming & advertising.

Big tech just completed a beat-down in ads. Apple’s privacy changes took the air out of stocks like Meta & Snapchat. Amazon, meanwhile, grew a $40B ads business in just a few years. Always build a moat against big tech.

5. The tyranny of spend

When a paid acquisition channel, like content budget, starts working, it can become tyrannical. The temptation becomes: let’s just keep doing more of this. But this has led Netflix’s economics to more closely resemble media than tech.

This has led to multiple compression. DTC companies have fallen similarly. Their tyranny was performance marketing. SaaS companies too. Those with expensive outbound sales motions have fallen. To maintain tech multiples, companies must generate operating leverage as they grow.

This usually means: create a differentiated product. What if Netflix had positioned its product as a $60 cable bundle and compensated the competition more to stave off their entries?Maybe it wouldn’t have worked. But maybe it could have.

15/12/2021

DO You Agree With This?

03/10/2021

19/05/2021

冒名顶替者只是成功的副产品。

16/05/2021

10/04/2021

04/02/2021

Found this useful resource that I would like to share with you all.
It contains 1.3 TB of courses on different useful topics

16490 files and 2898 subfolders